St. Luke's

St. Luke's Health System says it has resumed non-emergency procedures delayed since September by the large number of pandemic patients.

Unvaccinated Idahoans continue to be hospitalized at five and a half times the rate of vaccinated people, straining the hospital systems and overwhelming health care workers. Yet, misinformation and anger continues to spread throughout the state — with hateful acts targeted at the doctors and nurses working to treat those infected.

As our state continues to deal with a surge of COVID-19 cases, Idaho doctors are seeing alarming trends tied to COVID-19 cases in pregnant women—including maternal deaths, increase incidences of stillbirth and neonatal intensive care unit patients that are sicker than usual.

McDonald went home after a particularly taxing night on that floor recently and went to bed. When she woke up, the lump of stress in her throat was still there, so she started typing a poem.

Idaho hospitals are struggling to find enough staff in the latest pandemic surge. For health care facilities in expensive tourist areas, housing is the biggest challenge to finding new staff, according to administrators.

A week after Idaho moved to crisis standards of care statewide, St. Luke's, the largest health system in the state, is still setting COVID-19 hospitalization records.

Hospitalizations have continued to set new records since crisis standards of care were declared in Idaho last week. The surge is affecting more than just COVID patients.

A few weeks ago, we heard from an ICU nurse who works at St. Luke’s in Meridian. Her name is Ashley Brown. She’s giving us an update on what it’s like in the ICU now that we’re in crisis standards.

As of Thursday morning, the entire state of Idaho is now in crisis standards of care. These guidelines help medical professionals in hospitals decide who should get life saving care — and who may not with resources severely strained.

Ashley Brown is a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at St. Luke’s Meridian. After a couple of her shifts last week — right before the state activated Crisis Standards of Care in North Idaho — she recorded her thoughts for us.